Monday, October 25, 2010

Both of my daughters have fun smelling wine in our glasses. My older daughter, almost 4 now, likes to tell me what it smells like. The younger one just does whatever her older sister does. Neither has shown any desire to actually take a sip, in fact recoiling with a smile when offered.

Then the other day it happened. I had a glass of wine on the living room table and the younger daughter came up to smell it. She holds the glass when she does this, and this time, very quickly and without ceremony, she took a little sip.

I was kind of shocked, and I took the glass from her and sat their quietly to see what would happen next. She is almost 2, by the way. She just stood there blinking. "Do you like it?" I asked. "Yea," she said.

Well now the older daughter came running over and had to taste it too. So she took a sip, and considered it.

"What do you think?" I asked her.

"Wine is for grown-ups," she said.

"Yes, it is for grown-ups. But do you like it?"

"I like it," she smiled, and ran back to continue building with her Lego blocks.

Both have smelled wine since then and show no further interest in drinking it (whew). But the older daughter did remind me that I have wine saved for her from the year she was born. Some of you might be ready to call child protective services right now, but I think this was a great way to have your first sip of wine. No pressure, no buildup, no admonishments or judgments, just pure exploration of something that makes mommy and daddy happy, and experienced in their loving company.

The wine in question? 2006 Pierre Gonon St Joseph. Not a bad wine to begin with, I'd say. Now I have to add some Gonon's St Joseph to their birth year boxes.

6 comments:

Scott McCulloch
said...

My daughter (2005), and son (2008), haven't shown much interest in wine yet, either--although my son will take a swig of my beer now and then. Perhaps I should be looking at Belgium rather than the Loire for his case!

Both of my daughters regularly dip their finger into my wine glass. The oldest, 4, enjoyed Esszencia a year ago and enjoys partaking in the smelling of aromas out of my glass plus the occasional drop on the finger. There's no reason to demonize wine. Demonize that Diet Coke or the Koolaid before wine.

My son (6) likes, in descending order:Sake (Junmai Daiginjo, of course)Rosé (Provençal, of course)Beer (usually IPA around here)Wine (red over white by a hair, unless it's Spätlese Riesling)I used to let him dip his finger and taste that, but now he gets a small sip or two.

And he eats pickled nasturtium seeds out of the jar and has no idea at all what McDonald's is.